[erlang-questions] Erlang and Akka, The Sequel

[Fred Hebert]

On 03/31, Youngkin, Rich wrote:
>>    try
>>        {ok, Cs} = adventure:collect_coins(),
>>        Res = lists:flatmap(fun(Coins) ->
>>            {ok, Val} = adventure:buy_treasure(Coins),
>>            Val
>>        end, Cs),
>>    of
>>        SuccessValue ->
>>            %% Do something like continue to next challenge
>>    catch
>>        Type:Reason ->
>>            %% Do something like maybe repeat the previous challenge
>>    end.
>> ...
>>    try
>>        lists:flatmap(fun(Coins) -> adventure:buy_treasure(Coins) end,
>>                      adventure:collect_coins())
>>    of
>>        SuccessValue -> % Keep going
>>    catch
>>        _:_ -> % alt path
>>    end
>>
>
>I don't see a difference between the previous 2 Erlang implementations. Can
>you elaborate?
>

One of them matches on `{ok, Value}' to cause a failure, which makes the 
assumption 'bad' cases are returned as `undefined' or `{ok, Error}'. In 
the latter case it is expected that the called code raises exceptions 
when something goes wrong.

They're two fundamentally different approaches to designing your 
interface. They can, of course, be mixed together depending on the 
importance (or frequency) of the error.

Regards,
Fred.